Page 79 of Blood from the Marrow
“Time?” Zuri’s voice cracked with indignation. “She’s had three fucking decades.”
Elena’s covered hand found Zuri’s arm, the touch gentle but firm. “Step back. Let Marisol handle this her way.”
Zuri wanted to argue. Wanted to march over there and tell Clara exactly what she thought of parents who ran when things got hard. But something in Elena’s tone made her pause. She’d scrolled through enough faux-psychology posts on socials to know that shemightbe making this about her own mommy issues.
“Fine,” Zuri muttered. “But I’m watching.”
Under the protection of the poolside patio, Zuri and Elena stood with a handful of curious onlookers. Zuri wished the Aglion didn’t draw so much attention, but their ragtag strangeness was like a fucking neon sign.
Hel, dressed in a UV hoodie and pants, met them at the small clearing the A-frames faced in a semicircle. Zuri wished she had Elena’s superhuman hearing to make out what she said.
After talking with Hel, the massive woman Zuri had pegged as Judith stepped forward. Begrudgingly and without warning, enormous black wings erupted behind her. Nothing like Marisol’s ethereal translucence, Judith’s wings seemed to consume light like a black hole. Solid obsidian, they were more like dragon scales than feathers. Zuri imagined that they were big enough to blot out the fucking sun if Judith could fly.
“Holy shit,” Candela breathed over Zuri’s shoulder.
Zuri hadn’t managed a verbal response when another man stepped forward. Wiry and vibrating with nervous energy, the man spread his own wings. Zuri’s eyes widened. Smaller than Marisol’s, his wings were the color of storm clouds. Lightning flickered along the edges, crackling with barely contained power.
Hel was talking to him, but Zuri didn’t try to read her lips from so far away. All she could do was stare at the sparks illuminating the shifting gray of his wings.
Following Hel’s words, he motioned toward a palm tree on Narine’s property, just before the retaining wall and beach. After Hel nodded, he closed his eyes and clapped once. The sound reverberated through the ground beneath Zuri’s feet, and a moment later, a blinding bolt of lightning cracked out of nowhere.
The tree caught fire before splitting down the middle. Elena jumped in front of Zuri and her coven, reflexively covering them with her body before they all registered that he hadn’t meant to launch an attack.
Marisol was moving before anyone else could react, her own wings unfurling as she rushed toward the burning tree. Her hands pressed against the charred trunk, light pouring from her skin like she wanted to coax life back into the destroyed wood.
Remembering the day they’d consecrated their coven ground, Zuri closed her eyes and called on the rain. It was much harder to do without the power surge from their ancestors, but she strained and found enough to gather some rain clouds. When Avani and Candela realized what she was doing, they jumped in. Avani whipped the wind to localize the rain on the tree and Candela muttered under her breath like she was trying to soothe the flames with her words.
Zuri pulled back after they’d doused the fire. And then Clara was there, kneeling beside Marisol, their brilliant white wings identical. A handful of other Aglion joined them, and while the rest of them watched in stunned fascination, they mended the palm tree back to life. The place where it had cracked was left with a barely visible seam.
While they finished their miraculous work, Clara placed her hands next to Marisol’s on the tree. The moment their power touched, Marisol’s light flickered and died. She pulled back like she’d been burned, wings folding tight against her back.
There was no clearer signal that Marisol hadn’t wanted to be touched. Not by Clara, anyway. Zuri’s skin was still surging with power. This time, when thunder cracked, it was on her command. Jaw tight, she was going to tell Clara to back the fuck up, when Elena put her hand on her shoulder.
“What?” Zuri snapped.
“Zuri, we have to give her some space to navigate this with her mother,” Elena replied like she’d suddenly binged a bunch ofSuper Soul Sundayand evolved emotionally.
“Who the hell are you?” Zuri stared at Elena like she’d never seen her before. “One fucking act of mercy and you think you’re Gandhi? Did you forget what that woman?—”
“I haven’t forgotten a moment of Marisol’s past.” Elena’s jaw tightened beneath the UV fabric.
“Then why are you stopping me from?—”
“Because it’s not our choice.” Elena’s voice was low but firm. “It’s hers. And if we interfere, if we make this about our need to protect her instead of her need to understand, we become just another group of people making decisions for her.”
Zuri felt the fight drain out of her, replaced by something that felt suspiciously like tears. She looked back at Marisol, who was now standing alone while Clara tried to finish healing the tree with the others.
“I don’t want her to get hurt,” Zuri whispered.
She’d walked into Marisol’s memories. She knew the deep scars being abandoned by her parents—her mother—had left. How was she supposed to leave her to endure more pain?
“I know.” Elena moved closer, arm around her waist. “But sometimes keeping someone safe means letting them figure things out.”
Zuri wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Maybe Elena was right. Maybe Marisol needed to figure this out for herself. But that didn’t mean Zuri had to like it.
“If she so much as looks at Marisol wrong…” Zuri didn’t have to finish her threat while she glared at Elena.
In response, Elena flashed her fangs. A silent promise that Clara wouldn’t fuck with their girl twice.
